Category: parenting

We took the boys to the beach a couple weeks ago and snapped some fun pictures of Ben’s first trip to the ocean. (Charlie’s 1 millionth trip) Ben slept the whole time in my handy ring sling, and in newborn life – that’s considered a success. Charlie on the other hand, tried to throw himself into the water, eat sand and wave at everyone he saw. We’re so lucky that we can take weekend trips to the beach in just a five minute car ride!

The past two weeks have passed in an absolute blur with this new little one at home. Each day has been full of newborn and extra toddler snuggles. Benjamin Lewis arrived on March 1st weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ounces (though he’s already up to 10). His birth story is beautiful and I want to get it all down in writing before the details start drifting away from me (they already are!), but today I’m just checking in with the news that’s he’s here, he’s here!

Charlie is handling things pretty well with just some minor jealousy that mainly involves handing out sweet hugs like candy and trying out every item of Ben’s baby gear.

Ben is more alert and sweeter by the day. We love him despite his evening witching hour and his habit of waking up the moment we set him down. Today is the beginning of what I’m considering phase four of maternity leave (phase one: waiting. Phase two: arrival of Ben with my parents here. Phase three: Mike’s paternity leave. Phase four: just me and Ben) We’re sending Charlie in to daycare until summer break, so I can get to know and love on this little mush. I’m not quite ready to have a 15 month old and a two week old all to myself just yet. We’ll get there though. I’m holding the little man as I type this. He’s snoring away, one arm flung above his head and I’m thinking about joining him in a little mid afternoon nap before the big one gets home and demands dinner.

I just can’t even believe it’s already been a year (and a day) since this little ragamuffin came into the world! In some ways I feel like he was born just yesterday, but in others it’s like he’s been in our lives forever. He has brought us so much joy, and it’s been so crazy fun to see him grow. They go through so many changes in the first year! He’s just such a real little kid now. I can see him starting to lose his baby-hood which makes me sad, but it’s a. He runs everywhere, always wants to be outside, loves Wendy and ,

We celebrated the little man with a small batch of cupcakes, a birthday crown, some presents, and lots of reminiscing about this day a year ago. I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures here from his first year.

A bit of a belated announcement, but I wanted to have this here for posterity’s sake. Our family is going to be growing by another little person February! A totally unexpected addition to the family, but now that we’ve had a few months to recover from the shock, we’re so excited!

I have such a tiny bump in these pictures compared to today. I’ll hit 23 weeks on Tuesday and this baby is already stomping around in my belly like they own the place. Luckily, my mild morning sickness that made me want to lounge on the couch and nap all day wrapped itself up at the end of the first trimester, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since! I have a hard time wrapping my mind around being over the halfway mark already.

Second pregnancy with a (very) little one running around is definitely a different experience than the first. For those of you doing the math, Charlie and our second will be about 15 months apart. We’re scheduling our anatomy ultrasound this week to see if this baby is a boy or a girl. Squeee!

Charlie’s napping right now, so I just did my quick five minute sweep of the house to straighten things up. He’s become quite the little destroyer, pulling plastics off shelves and toys out of baskets as fast as I put them back. Which has had me thinking: Should I just leave everything until after bedtime when I do another sweep of the house, setting things back to rights? Or do I keep cleaning up a little bit throughout the day to keep my own sanity and to bring him the never ending joy of emptying his baskets?

We have so far limited Charlie’s toys to one basket of wood blocks, one of other toys, and one of books. Call us crazy, but ideally we’ll not ever have much more than this – just transitioning toys out and in as he gets older and as other babies come along. I could see us getting one larger basket to hold the miscellaneous toys, and having multiple others tucked away under his bed to pull out when he wants to play with them. But right now, he’s the definition of a free range baby, finding more interest in non-toys throughout the house in the form of plastic lids, rubber spatulas and the occasional shoe. Of course, he also has a shelf of books on the bookshelf, but he hasn’t found that yet 😂.

So it’s not much, but in a small house, things get messy fast. I love a tidy home (who doesn’t), but my little destroyer loves the thrill of getting everything out. So, what do you think, reader? Tidy throughout the day, or leave it all to the end?

This reminds me of this article I read the other day on Food52 about the apparently controversial practice of cleaning the kitchen as you go, or leaving it all to the end! What are you? I’m a clean as I go! Which maybe answers this whole Wednesday wondering. 😂 It must just be in my nature.

Who needs a baby pool anyway? This first weekend of summer break was too, too good. I’m feeling all sorts of happiness about it. The first weekend is important, you know? It sets the stage for the whole summer. And it’s going to be a good one – I can feel it in my bones. How could it not be, with this kid?The heat and humidity swooped in with a vengeance this weekend, so I pulled the little tin beer cooler out of our outdoor side table, gave it a good wipe, filled it to the brim with the hose, moved it to a shady spot (all talk of not hanging out under the mango tree aside 😂) and tucked Charlie in it to splash away to his heart’s content. When I pulled him out thirty minutes later, happy & tired, I wrapped him and his wrinkly toes in a big striped beach towel. He took a solid two hour afternoon nap after that. Such goodness! Just love this little man so much. So, moral of the story? You don’t need to buy a thing to have summer fun. Running water? Something, anything to hold it in? You’re good! Or really pull out all the stops and hook up your hose to a sprinkler – or even just a sprayer head. No need to go out and buy anything. Although you certainly can if you so fancy! Find summer fun around you wherever you are! I’m finding that Charlie doesn’t care (nor I!) one bit if something is new, old or found. He loves his new shaker toy as much as the little Tupperware I filled with rice. And clearly he loves the tin as much as a baby pool 😊. But let’s be honest – I’m reeeeelly excited to put him in a real pool when we’re home in Indiana next week!! The tin was such a sweet solution for a hot, humid Florida day, but nothing beats the real thing. Just a note to remind (mostly myself) that money need not be spent for summer fun! ☺️

I posted a couple weeks ago that Charlie had started scooting around the house like a little zombie. This last week though, at 6 month plus a week or two, he’s up on his knees and crawling for real! He’s into everything now; pulling things off the shelves, hunting for cords, trying to eat Wendy’s bone.

I looked away for two minutes this weekend, and he had crawled over to Wendy’s food and dumped her whole water bowl all over the living room and himself. Naughty boy! He’s started to pull up to stand on us and here and there around the house too. This boy is going to be walking before we know it!! Here’s a little video 🙂

This article made me chuckle last week. If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ll have heard about Kate Middleton stepping out just 7 hours after giving birth looking fit for the red carpet. It’s been quite the hit in the news lately, and moms are making hilarious comparisons of their own looks after births. I don’t know about you, but 7 hours after birth I think I was hobbling down the hallway, gingerly trying to sit down, figure out how to diaper and feed the baby all while consuming vast quantities of food myself.

All things considered, I felt great after birth. I bounced back fairly easily, didn’t need or want any painkillers that they offered me in the hospital. I was on such a baby high! But makeup was the last thing on my mind and I’m sure I looked like a nightmare. I really didn’t care, and we only have maybe two pictures of me in the hospital to prove it. We were Thinking about Kate Middleton having to wear heels and makeup just a few hours after pushing an 8 and a half pound infant into the world. Gosh! The whole thing just makes me think about how different each of our forays into birth and motherhood are.

While I was pregnant, women loved telling me all about their birth experiences and I actually love to hear everyone’s stories. I would cluck in compassion about their emergency c-section, gasp at the appropriate moments when they told me about the moment they needed an epidural, and express surprise about the fact that they were induced and never even felt a contraction. Everyone has a different and beautiful story for bringing their baby into the world. For the most part, every story ended the same. “Having a new baby is just the best.” That’s how my story ends anyway. What about you? It’s hard, but so worth it, right?

I just had to document this silly little phase. Charlie started scooting around on his belly on Tuesday and it’s hilarious. He moves like a little fish! He pushes off with his right leg and pulls himself along with his arms. So funny. Mike told me that yesterday morning he was crawling around on his knees and up on his hands like a real crawler, but I haven’t seen it yet!

And, of course, the first thing he went for? Wendy’s food and water bowl. I had to snap a couple pictures before firmly telling him “NO!” (which he laughed at) and redirecting him elsewhere. We’re going to have to keep a really close eye on this kid now. And we may have to start doing some more baby proofing around the house. We have tons of danger hot spots!

Mornings can be so hard with a baby, amiright? Honestly, mornings were hard when I only had to get myself ready. Adding a squirmy little guy to the mix has not made it any easier. I’ve been back at work for nearly four months now, and I’ve collected a handful of tips to streamline our mornings. Am I still late to work some mornings? YES! Has it gotten a little easier? YES! Do I still go back to snuggle Charlie 10,000 times before actually leaving the house? Double Yes. This is such a small and silly little tip, but I’m telling you it has made such a big difference for me in the morning.

Are you ready? Here it is: On Sunday night, lay out all your baby’s outfits for the entire week! That’s it! Simple, but big. I get a lot of laundry done on the weekend, so on Sunday when I’m folding, I just set aside five outfits (complete with socks) on Charlie’s dresser. It makes it so much easier to get him dressed in the morning. That way, after I feed him I just have to grab a little stack and throw it on him and I’m done. No more digging through drawers, or coming up short on matching outfits.

Isn’t that such a great little thing? Try it! A bonus that is that it’s a serious visual for how close you are to the weekend. Three outfits on the dresser looks like nothing compared to five. Now, if I were really on top of things I’d lay all of my clothes out for the week too, but I’m definitely not there yet.